All Souls of the Benedictine Order

The Dies Iræ is the traditional sequence for Requiem Masses and the Masses of All Souls. While this sequence no longer appears at Mass in the Ordinary Form of the modern Roman Rite, it remains in both the Extraordinary Form and in the Benedictine liturgies – and I note that it is sung during the All Souls Mass at Seattle’s Saint James Cathedral, so there appears to be some wiggle room regarding its liturgical use. It was sung at Francine’s funeral.

It seems appropriate to revisit this hymn today, and to listen to it or even sing it. For today, the Feast of All Souls of the Benedictine Order, we pray for the souls of all Benedictine monks, nuns, sisters, and oblates in purgatory.

Most probably written by Servant of God Thomas of Celano near the middle of the 13th century, there have been more than three hundred different English translations. So pervasive is the tune, that it has found its way into movie soundtracks from It’s a Wonderful Life to The Lord of the Rings to Star Wars.

In his masterwork, The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal, Dom Matthew Britt praised the hymn’s “exquisite beauty”. Indeed, he spends nearly twenty pages exploring its poetry and wealth of scriptural allusions, constantly speaking of the impossibility of translating it completely faithfully.

Britt calls it “the greatest of all hymns”, and I, for one, bow to his wisdom.

In particular today, I pray for the soul of my beautiful bride, Francine, who passed from this world on June 21st of this year. I miss her terribly every day, and I enjoin you to please pray for her as well.

We suppliants, O Lord, pour forth our prayers
for the souls of Thy servants and handmaids of our Order,
that Thou wouldst mercifully pardon
whatsoever they have committed through human frailty,
and graciously bring their sufferings to an end.

Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, Thy son
who with Thee liveth and reigneth
in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
God, world without end.

Amen.